Geely EX5 Review & Prices

You will doubtless be looking at this Geely EX5 and thinking ‘yet another new Chinese car I’ve never heard of.’ Except you’re — kind of — wrong. You see, while Geely as a brand all by itself is new to these shores, Geely the company is huge and it has since 2010 owned Volvo, and it also owns both Polestar and Lotus. So you may have already actually owned a Geely car without realising it.

Nonetheless, this Geely EX5 is the brand’s first self-badged car to hit the UK, and it wants a slice of the electric SUV pie currently being eaten by the Skoda Enyaq and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

With the best will in the world, it’s not an exciting car to look at. The EX5 looks more than a bit like someone ran a photo of an MG S5 EV through the photocopier on 10% enlarge, but it’s at least a neat and clean design. Get used to not being able to find yours in the supermarket car park, though.

Inside, it’s just as generic, with a hint of Tesla, Xpeng, and Leapmotor about the design of the cabin. Anyway, you get the expected big 15.4-inch touchscreen, a slightly smaller screen for your instruments, and a squared-off steering wheel. There are also massive dinner-plate-sized stereo speakers on top of the dash, and supplementary side-plate sized ones over by the doors, for the oddly-named ‘Flyme Stereo’. Will the EX5 be the Chinese EV for music lovers?

Higher spec versions will get a high-tech faux-leather trim called ‘GeeLuxe’ which looks quite plush, and there are heated and ventilated seats available too. Space in the back seats is generous, and there’s plenty of storage around the cabin, but the boot holds only 410 litres, which is pretty small when you think that a Skoda Enyaq can swallow up to 585 litres.

Geely hasn’t announced full UK specifications yet, but the entry-level EX5 comes with a 60kWh lithium-iron phosphate battery (cheaper to make, more rugged in use and unbothered by fast-charging) for a roughly 267 mile range, which is OK, but well short of the 300+ mile ranges of the likes of the VW ID.4 and Kia EV6. 100kW DC fast charging is nothing special either, but at least the 215hp front-wheel drive electric motor gives the EX5 decent performance.

One thing that might give Geely a bit of a boost is that it has leveraged its ownership of Lotus to develop the EX5’s chassis and steering, so the EX5 could well be the first Chinese SUV that’s actually properly good fun to drive.

If you're interested, keep an eye on this page where we'll be reviewing the Geely EX5 as soon as we can. You can check out Geely EX5 deals in the meantime, or get a great deal on one of our favourite electric SUVs. And remember Carwow can help you to sell your old car when the time comes, too.

Geely isn’t going to pitch the EX5 as a super-cheap car, and it will be priced broadly in line with the likes of the VW ID.4, Skoda Enyaq, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. That’s OK at the base level, where the Geely’s range is competitive with the cheapest versions of those cars, but unless the EX5 also gets a bigger, longer-range battery, it might struggle against higher-spec models.

In other markets, the EX5 comes in basic Complete, and higher-spec Aspire versions, but again, UK pricing isn’t yet set. It’ll also have to take on the likes of the affordable Leapmotor C10, which has comparable range and pricing, and a roomy interior.